Johnny Depp, as Whitey Bulger, films 'Black Mass' at Quincy home

Tuesday

Jun 10, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 10, 2014 at 10:27 AM

Johnny Depp was in Quincy on Monday for the beginning of "Black Mass" filming at a Squantum home

By Nathaniel WeitzerThe Patriot Ledger

QUINCY – The usually quiet intersection of Huckins Avenue and East Squantum Street became filled with production trucks, law enforcement vehicles, and local spectators as filming for the 2015 feature film “Black Mass” began on location.

The film, which stars Johnny Depp, is an action-crime drama based on the life of convicted Irish mobster James “Whitey” Bulger. The production crew is shooting at 786 East Squantum St. over the next two days as they re-create scenes in the neighborhood where Bulger’s girlfriend, Catherine Greig (Sienna Miller), lived in Quincy.

Also on set was actress Dakota Johnson, who is playing Lindsey Cyr, the Weymouth woman who said she had a child with Bulger in the 1960s.

Kathy O’Brien, of Quincy, works in Cambridge and said she missed the opportunity to see Depp and the production crew while they were filming in Boston, but managed to catch a glimpse of the star as he walked to his trailer for makeup Monday morning.

“Everyone’s been talking about it so I decided to take my mother out and have a little fun,” said O’Brien. “It’s incredible how much equipment and personnel it takes for two days of filming.”

O’Brien’s mother, Florence Griffith, has lived in Quincy for the past 50 years, but grew up in South Boston and said she attended the same high school as Whitey Bulger’s niece. William Bulger, Whitey’s brother and a Massachussets State Senator from 1978 to 1996, was friendly with Griffith’s mother.

“It’s wonderful to see all these people from the old neighborhood out together. I haven’t seen this much excitement around here since the Fourth of July,” Griffith said, who lives a few blocks from the set.

Depp is no stranger to playing local baddies. He starred as Weymouth cocaine king George Jung in 2001’s “Blow.”

Greig, Bulger’s girlfriend, lived in Squantum. She fled Boston with him in 1995.Bulger, 84, was sentenced in November to two consecutive life terms plus five years. A jury in August found him guilty in 11 of 19 killings along with other gangland crimes, including shakedowns and money laundering.

“As nice as it is to see Hollywood in our own neighborhood,” O’Brien said, “we have to remember that there are kids who lost parents as part of these true events, and that it’s truly a sad story.”